Cgrundertow Mahjong Cub3d for Nintendo 3ds Video Game Review

This is one of those games that tries to get cute with the name, so I’m going to have make a decision right up front. It’s either Mahjong Cub 3D...or Mahjong Cubed with a three instead of an E. Although, I’m not sure why’d they put a three in there. Why would you put a three in the title...next to the D? Some questions have no answers, I suppose. Anyway, this is Mahjong Cub3D for the Nintendo 3D— Oh, wait a minute! Released earlier this month, Mahjong Cub3D was published by Atlus and sold on Nintendo’s handheld for about $30 bucks at launch. As fun as a game of Mahjong can be—let alone a game of Mahjong in 3D—that’s still too much for a game that offers so little. You can get a great game of Mahjong on your iPhone for a fraction of that price and with more features, which makes Mahjong Cub3D feel a bit pointless. Of course, the selling point here is that Mahjong Cub3D offers its own twist on the game and displays it in fancy stereoscopic 3D. Instead of playing with a stack of tiles, Mahjong Cub3D gives you a bundle of tiles you have to spin and manipulate in three dimensions. A matching tile might be on the opposite side of the bundle or on the bottom, for example, so you’re rotating the tiles like a globe. It’s a neat concept, and the game gives you around 200 puzzles to play with across three difficulties. But ultimately, your enjoyment of this game depends on whether you like Mahjong or not, because despite the cool graphics effect, that’s what this is. It’s a game of Mahjong. In fact, you can even play the game in its classic form, if the 3D version isn’t for you. But then, of course, why bother? To the game’s credit, I did enjoy playing the new version. It’s similar enough to the classic to still be Mahjong, but it does have its own unique feel. Spinning the bundle while trying to beat the timer is a lot of fun, and the 3D effect does work well in this admittedly simple implementation. The problem, of course, is Mahjong Cub3D only gives you the new 3D mode, the classic mode and two-player local multiplayer...and that’s about it. This is a problem many 3DS games are facing, as they cling to an outdated pricing model that’s been rendered obsolete. In 2001, this might’ve been an enticing package. In 2011, it feels like too much for too little. Mahjong Cub3D isn’t a bad game. If you’re a big Mahjong fan and can find it on the cheap, it’s a decent game...it just happens to be an overpriced game, as well.